阅读理解 Passage 3 Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage: In the United States elementary education begins at the age of six. At this stage nearly all the teachers are women, Mostly married. (80) The atmosphere is usually very friendly, and the teachers have now accepted the idea that the important thing is to make the children happy and interested. The old authoritarian (要绝对服从的) methods of education were discredited (不被认可) rather a long time ago - so much so that many people now think that they have gone too far in the direction of trying to make children happy and interested rather than gibing them actual instruction. The social education of young children tries to make them accept the idea that human beings in a society need to work together for their common good. So the emphasis is on co-operation rather than competition throughout most of this process. This may seem curious, in view of the fact that American society is highly competitive; however, the need for making people sociable in this sense has come to be regarded as one of the functions of education. Most Americans do grow up with competitive ideas, and obviously quite a few as criminals, but it is not fair to say that the educational system fails. Ti probably does succeed in making most people sociable and ready to help one another both in material ways and through kindness and friendliness.

单选题 According to the passage, the U.S. elementary education is supposed to make children _____.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】Passage 3 本文作者主要讨论了美国初等教育的标准和目标。该题为推理考查题，第二段前两句The social education of young children tries to make them accept the idea that human beings in a society need to work together for their common good. So the emphasis is on co-operation rather than competition throughout most of this process.强调的是培养学生合作意识，在第一段里有提到使学生感兴趣，所以应该选D。

单选题 Some Americans complain about elementary schools because they think _____.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】该题为细节考查题，文章第一段最后一句trying to make children happy and interested rather than giving them actual instruction.即只是为了让孩子们高兴和感兴趣而没有给他们实际指导。所以应该选D。

单选题 The author’s attitude towards American education can be best described as _____.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】该题为推断或对作者态度考查题，文章结束部分…but it is not fair to say that the educational system fails. It probably does succeed in making most people sociable and ready to help one another both in material ways and through kindness and friendliness.即认为这种教育失败的说法是不公平的，它也有成功之处。所以应该是A。

单选题 The American educational system emphasizes _____.

单选题 The word “sociable” (Line 8, Paragraph2) most probably means _____.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】该题为词汇考查题，文章最后一句making most people sociable and ready to help one another both in material ways and through kindness and friendliness. 通过比较sociable和ready to help one another两个词组并列关系，可以推断出sociable 的大致意思，故应该选B。